Christopher John Francis Boone knows all the countries of the world and their capitals and every prime number up to 7,057. He relates well to animals but has no understanding of human emotions. He cannot stand to be touched. And he detests the color yellow.
This improbable story of Christopher's quest to investigate the suspicious death of a neighborhood dog makes for one of the most captivating, unusual, and widely heralded novels in recent years.
Again, a great read this month. There seems to be a spate of fiction about various disorders of late (eg, the movie Mary & Max, the Stephen King story N. -- both of which I highly recommend), but this had the added benefit of being in first person. It was incredibly interesting to get an idea of what goes on inside the mind of someone like Christopher, though I am sure the book can only approximate. A favourite passage was in chapter 223 when he describes an ad in the tube station: "...but I can't remember all of it because I thought I was going to die."
ReplyDeleteI also really enjoyed the British setting as I knew first hand of so many of the things Christopher mentions, notably the patterns on the walls and upholstery of tube trains.
At first I thought I was missing a page when the first chapter was titled 2. Then I thought chapter 1 might come at the end... I felt a bit stupid once I figured the numbering system out.
Thanks, Grant for letting me know about this book.